A moment later, Williams dribbled, threw a head fake at her defender, took off with her lightning first step, charged into the opponent and was correctly called for a player-control foul.

"You're right, Doug, she's quick," said the ref the next time he neared the DePaul bench. "That time, she was too quick. She didn't wait for the other girl to bite on her fake."

Williams brings to women's basketball the uncommon type of first-step explosiveness that Georgetown's Allen Iverson is using to shake up the men's game. She has been the catalyst in the surge that has carried the slow-starting Blue Demons to 15 victories in their last 17 games heading into the Conference USA tournament in Birmingham, Ala. The Blue Demons are the No. 1 seed and will meet either North Carolina-Charlotte or Cincinnati Friday.

DePaul has many stars. All-American Latasha Byears ranks among national leaders in scoring and rebounding. Tawona Alhaleem scores, rebounds, passes and excels on defense against opponents' top scorers. In the pivot, 6-2 Mfon Udoka provides points and boards, and 6-5 Amy Lundquist blocks shots.

Williams is the ringleader. During the current 15-2 run, she averaged almost 18 points, six assists and four steals a game.

"I feel I can always score," she said. "My role is to get the other players involved and make them feel good about themselves. The most fun to me is to get the fans involved and excited."

Bruno watched Williams excite fans while leading coach Dorothy Gaters' Marshall team to three Class AA state titles. He recruited her from West Arkansas Community College, where last year as a junior college All-American she led her team to the national title.

"I absolutely give Kim more freedom on the floor than other players," said Bruno. "I don't want to stifle things Kim can do. She's a guard, not a point guard or an off-guard, an old-fashioned guard. Refs aren't used to seeing women do what she can do."

Williams developed her unusual quickness long before she enrolled at Marshall. She had to be quick to keep up with older, bigger brothers Ron, Corey and Lamont when they played together at Kershaw playground at 64th and Lowe.

"I started basketball when I was 5," Williams recalled. "My brothers and I did everything together. I never played with girls until after I started at Kershaw Elementary School."

Williams' basketball skills were good enough to jump immediately from high school to stardom in Division I. Her academic record, however, was not.

"My first couple of years in high school, I was not serious enough about academics," Williams admitted. "My mother got on me. So did Miss Gaters, who's been like a second mother to me. She disciplined me, made me miss games. Finally, I made the honor roll, but my SAT scores weren't enough.

"I'm grateful I went to junior college. It was so different from Chicago. I saw animals, pigs, frogs you don't see in Chicago. I was homesick two years."